across the table and hissed, ‘I don’t mean about work—although he was totally brilliant— I meant you and Simon.’ And Molly raised her eyebrows several times.
Kate took one look at Molly’s face, groaned, and dropped her head into her hands. ‘Oh, no. Was it that obvious?’
‘Totally. I know Simon, and the fact that you couldn’t keep your eyes off each other sort of gave the game away.’
‘We couldn’t?’ Kate whimpered.
Molly shuffled in her chair like a schoolgirl anxious for gossip. ‘So tell me everything. When are you coming back? Or is it Simon’s turn to visit you? I am dying to know. You do make a very handsome couple.’
Kate swallowed down a gulp of coffee and looked over her cup at Molly. ‘Sorry. Not going to happen. We both have too many other people to think about.’
Her voice broke as she said the words, and she sniffed away the burning in her throat as she reached out for more toast. Only Molly beat her to it, and laid her hand on top of Kate’s.
‘The last thing I need are two lovestruck people on my watch. Let’s order more coffee. I want to know the whole story. Right from the start.’
Two hours later Kate stopped outside Simon’s hotel room door, raised her hand, then lowered it again.
She was leaving this lovely conference hotel and heading out to see the two new projects that Andy had started. Which meant that it was time to say goodbye to Simon. There was no need to visit his village—the work there was well under way and all her questions had been answered. If she did go it would only be a feeble excuse to spend more time with Simon.
Of course she was tempted to stay. Simon was right. Modern communication technology meant that she could see and talk to Gemma every day if she wanted, even from rural Ghana, but there were so many other things to consider. And her head and heart were not co-operating very well. Perhaps these next few days on the road would help to clear her thoughts. She certainly hoped so.
Come on, Kate told herself. You need to do this. You are a professional. It is a common courtesy to say goodbye to your client. Even if it is Simon.
Every part of her heart was screaming stay, while her head was running through all the perfectly sensible and logical reasons why that was such a crazy idea, and she should run as far and as fast away from Simon as her legs and a fast plane could carry her.
She had held it together through a nightmare dinner, where they had only been seated three chairs apart, and then days of official presentations and speeches and reports. The conference had been a constant buzz of frenetic activity and deliberate business, designed to make certain that there was no time when she could be left alone with Simon to express a simple Nice to see you again. Goodbye. Have a nice life, Your Majesty.
As far as the other delegates were concerned she and Simon were simply work colleagues supporting an important local initiative.
This was how she wanted it. Wasn’t it?
Shame that Molly and goodness knew who else had seen through her little charade.
But all she had to do was survive the next few minutes and then she could walk away and get on with her life. From now on their relationship would be totally professional, and conducted through the safety of an internet connection. If he could do that, then so could she.
So, before she could change her mind, Kate pressed the doorbell on Simon’s room and instantly heard footsteps on the other side of the door.
He was wearing his old cargo trousers and T-shirt and looked about seventeen, but it was the expression on his face that took her breath away.
He was looking at her with such love, and with a smile so honest and open and real, that just being so close to him, so near and yet so far, was overwhelming.
‘Hey. Everything all right?’ he asked, scanning her face in concern. ‘Sorry that things were so busy that we haven’t had a chance to talk.’
He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know that I am leaving.
‘Absolutely, but the conference has been a huge success.’ She smiled politely, and then said what she had to say before he had a chance to answer or her nerve failed. ‘Molly’s waiting for me downstairs, but I wanted you to know that I heard back